May 2026 Newsletter
Posted on 23rd Jun 2026 by David Taylor
May Newsletter
The season’s over! And we can now hopefully look forward to some decent transfer news and of course the World Cup.
Regarding events for our members, there are three items to mention this month. Firstly, our Alan Biley event on 19th June has now sold out. Thank you to those who purchased tickets. The bar opens at 6.45pm so we look forward to seeing you there.
Secondly, we have also arranged a special tour around the Mary Rose for our members. One of our stadium tour guides, Greg Hills, who is also a volunteer guide at the Mary Rose Museum in the Dockyard, has helped us set this up and will lead the tour with his colleagues. It will take place on Thursday 24th September at 11am at the excellent price of only £15 for PHS members. Total number is restricted to 60. This is a brilliant offer being made by the Mary Rose Museum, based on the special relationship they have developed with Portsmouth Football Club, and we thank them for their generosity. We will send you the link to buy tickets in next months newsletter but do put the date in your diary!
And lastly, regarding the Hall Of Fame Dinner, we have decided that to get the guests that we want it would be better to have this event outside of the summer period. We are going to wait until the fixtures come out and then decide when to have it, but we hope it will be early in the new season.
Other things to mention are:-
Fundraising
As you know, we are raising £1000 towards the cost of a replica Women’s National League South trophy, won by the women in 2024. Together with a substantial donation from one of our members, it allows us to get this item in the trophy cabinet to replace the original that has been sent back to the women’s authorities. They don't supply replicas as in the men’s game. We are now getting closer to the target following a number of donations and a bucket collection at the team’s final home fixture of the season against Nottingham Forest where we raised £122.11. Many thanks to the bucket shakers, Mick Comben, Greg Hills, John Grant, Bill Griffiths and Colin Farmery. Supporters can donate to our society’s Gerry Spragg's Fund – as you will recall, named after a former society member, and co-author of the 125 history book – using this link and we'll keep you updated re progress as usual.
Society Treasurer
You will be pleased to know that we have found a new Treasurer to replace Paul Boynton who has done the job for years and now wants to concentrate on other PHS projects. Andy Dobbs, a long-term fan who may be known to many of you, has stepped forward and will start at the end of this financial year in July with Paul helping him to get the 2025-26 accounts in order. A massive thanks to Andy!
Past Chimes
May's show is going out this forthcoming weekend. We have a number of guests in the pipeline, so let's see who pops out first! Colin Farmery is still holding the fort in the continued absence of Richard Atkins-Greig who is still recovering from surgery. Do listen on Express FM catch-up, it’s a great show although we’re not sure if Colin’s choice of music is better than Richard's!
Portsmouth 100 Project
As part of the celebrations for 100 years of Portsmouth being a city, we continue to work on the displays that will go live in one of their galleries at the City Museum from October 26th. Under the leadership of committee member Phil Magrath, we are currently pulling together displays on topics such as 100 Years of FA Cup Competitions; Pompey In Europe; Jimmy Dickinson and Peter Harris; What Might Have Been (the stadiums and training grounds that didn't go ahead); 40 Years of the Pompey Women team and other interesting topics.
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We intend to have various film clips available, the old Pompey Hotel sign hanging up, an old turnstile and floodlight on display and many things like that. So if you have any items that you think would be really suitable to be included in the displays then please email us on history@pompeyfc.co.uk and we will be in touch.
Memories Projects
There have been two of these underway, Steve Tovey’s project on your first game memories and also the University student's project on fans memories of the period from 1999 onwards. The students have now done most of their interviews so a massive THANK YOU to those who were interviewed by telephone or at Fratton Park. We will ultimately get the recordings to keep for use by future historians. Steve’s project is currently on hold due to family illness but he will pick it up again when he can over the summer months.
Henry Montgomery
Henry, who is the grandson of “Monty” and the hereditary Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, visited Fratton Park on the 29th April to meet with fans Harold Kempster, who saw Monty at Fratton after Monty became club President in 1944, and Lesley Steven whose Dad played for us in the Championship years. Henry is retracing his grand-father’s steps; a journey around the UK originally made in 1944 just before D Day to meet the troops, watch training exercises and visit factories. Over eight weeks, Henry is also travelling through Britain and then Normandy uncovering the human stories behind his grand-father’s journey. He particularly wanted to be at Fratton on 29th April as his grandfather’s first match at Fratton after being asked to be club President was on that same day in 1944, a few weeks before D Day took place. Henry finishes his trip at the D Day beaches on 6th June this year and hopes to honour the 22,540 names on the British Normandy Memorial by raising £225,400 to support the work of the British Normandy memorial by bringing the stories to life for future generations. You can see more details at britishnormandymemorial.org and follow the journey @BritishMemorial on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Mick Comben and Colin Farmery hosted Henry at Fratton, showed him around and participated in interviews with the Evening News, bringing the story of Monty and PFC to life. Colin and Mick showed Henry the letters from Monty to the club that we hold in our archive, one of which will definitely be included in the forthcoming Museum exhibition in October for everyone to see. On your behalf, Mick presented Henry with an honorary membership of the History Society and he will be coming to a game next season.
And lastly, your PHS committee spent a very pleasant few hours at the Bird In Hand pub in Lovedean this week to celebrate the end of another season’s hard work. We had our photo taken with their replica FA Cup that they keep behind the bar along with photos of the real cup back in 1943 when it was kept safe in the pub during the war. This wasn’t the only place that the cup was kept during the period; we know it was held in two banks in Commercial Road at various times and also at Havant Police Station but we are building up a picture of its various homes from 1939 to 1946 so if you know of a story about where it was housed during that time do please let us know by emailing us on history@pompeyfc.co.uk
During the evening at the Bird In Hand we all agreed that we were especially proud of a number of things that we have achieved over the course of this season and we will take you through the detail of the years work at our AGM which we intend to hold on October 8th in the Legends Lounge, followed by a guest speaker. More on that in a future newsletter.
Thats all for now.
Play Up Pompey!